Thomas County cat. [volume] (Colby, Kan.) 1885-1891, 1887-05-19
TWO PHYSICIANS:
One Of the Body and One oc the
Soul.

Throughout his life. Dupuytren, the
renowned French surgeon, proved him
self man of action. We admired less
his genius for speculative research
than the prodigious faculty for applied
science which characterized his career.
His surgica! discoveries, although num-
-erous and important, do not admit of
his being compared even with such
men as j. l.. Petit Pott, or Desault;
but the marvellous ease which he dis
played in cases of the gravest concern.
the expcdients he had at command in
complications of the most desperate
diseases, that admirable promptitude
of eye, that infallibility of judgment
and of hand, placed him foremost
among practitioners ina science where
practice is SO intimately linked with
theory.
1t will readily be granted that the
peculiar nature of those labors to
which his genius had doomed him may
have reacted upon his character and
nodded it. The man who, day after
day, held in his grasp the lives of so
many of his fellew-beings and from
whose verdict there was almost no APP
peal, doubtless found little to esteem
or admire in poor, suffering humanity.
Carrying out to the utmost his abso-
lutte views of a positivist, Dupuytren.
in matters connected with religion. OBJ
stinately inveiged against what he
termed Utopian speculations, whenever
he found IN occasion, however spe-
cious, to do so, BY degrees. his an
tipathy that way degenerated into
downright hatred. His high position
ut the court of the restoration could
not fail, however, to eXtOrt from him
some concessions to principles so irrev-
ocably espoused. Here is an exam
pie: At a mass celebrated in the private
chapel of the palace of Saint Cloud. one
day. Dupuytren, at the moment of cle-
walton, let fall with great CHATTER, his
voluminous Book of Hours" bound
with massive golden clasps. The
Duchesse d. Angouleme. who was pres
ent, looked up and remarked:
"There is NJ. Dupuytren losing his
Hoursr'
But not this time. rejoined the Due
de Maille, who knelt by the side of the
DucheSSe.
This religious assimilation. to which
Dupuytren seemingly resigned himself
with sufficient good grace. only irri-
tated him the more: it confirmed his
strenuous hatred of ideas which were
opposed to his own and of those who
advocated them.
However this may be. Dupuytren
was hard worker: he was unremit-
tingly occupied, and few may boast
of life so busy as his own. Summer
and winter he was up at five o'clock in
the morning. At seven he was at the
Hotel-Dieu hospital. which he left at
eleven. After this he went his rounds
of visits. and returned home to receive
the sick in consultation. Although he
dispatched these visits with almost
brutal celebrity his clients were daily SO
NUMEROUS llldt the CONSULTATIONS OIleN
lasted far into the night.
One Gay, the consultations having
extended even beyond the usually late
hour, Dupuytren, worn out with IA
tigue. was about retiring to rest. when
another visitor came to the door of his
room.
The person was an aged man, of eN-
-ceedingly small stature. whose age it
might have been difficult to determine.
His full. ruddy face, whereon razor
had never been required to perform its
office, still beamed with plumpness
and prettiness which, in his youth,
doubtless recalled that peculiar type of
chubby cherubim SO often seen in
pictures of the immaculate Concep-
ton of the Virgin Mary. Under a
close network of burrows was tiny
mouth, delicately cut, and little ko-
man nose neatly drawn; his hands and